LESSON OF ELECTION IN GREECE: TOLERANCE OF DICTATORS HURTS U.S.

'I fear the Greeks even when they come bearing gifts." Virgil's famous line applies nicely to the view that the re-election of Andreas Papandreou is somehow a blessing for the United States.

At best, the vote Sunday in Greece resulted in a least among evils. The message to the United States is that tolerance of right-wing dictatorships eventually can lead to choices that are all harmful to American security.

Of the possible outcomes in Greece, the worst would have been a narrow victory for PASOK, the Socialist party headed by Prime Minister Papandreou. For the result would have been a weak government headed by an unreliable leader who depended on Communist support to stay in power.

Nearly as bad would have been a victory for the New Democracy Party of Constantine Mitsotakis. For the opposition would have come to power in a divided country, with basic political legitimacy put in doubt by a virtually insoluble quarrel over the role of the Greek president.

Set against those two possibilities, the re-election of Papandreou with an absolute majority in the parliament comes as a relief. It means the Communists will not be in the swing position in Greek politics. It makes it possible to pass over unanswerable questions of legitimacy about the right way to name a president. Still, Papandreou's re-election as prime minister presents substantial problems to NATO and the European Economic Community.

For the Greek prime minister tries to balance between West and East. He curses capitalism as much as communism. He has been a tricky partner in NATO and the European Economic Community. He has blessed communist actions of great brutality, including the shooting down of the Korean airliner by the Soviets and the military regime in Poland.

No doubt, Papandreou's bark has been worse than his bite. He came to power in 1981, threatening to close down four U.S. bases in Greece. In fact he renegotiated a base agreement that runs until 1988. He threatened, before coming to office, to take Greece out of the EEC. In fact, he maintained membership and used threats of withdrawal to increase payments for agricultural produce.

But the true case against the Greek leader is what he has done to his own country. He has allowed inflation to stay high (20 percent) without cutting unemployment (10 percent). He has made the economy dependent upon agricultural subsidies that cannot long endure. He has deepened political divisions by playing games with the office supposed to incarnate national unity -- the presidency.

In theory these shenanigans, plus Papandreou's neutralism, should have made for a strong run by the New Democratic opposition. But in fact the New Democrats did not raise the issue of Papandreou's left-wing connections. Why? Because opinion in Greece has turned distinctly anti-American in tone.

Last year, for example, the United States Information Agency took a poll of 10 European countries including Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Portugal as well as Greece. Twice as many people in Greece (38 percent) had a bad opinion of the United States as any other country.

Of course, the Greek civil war in the late 1940s left a legacy of bitter feelings between right and left. No comparable poll measures opinion at that time. Still during the 1950s and the 1960s, Greece was known as highly pro- American. It was in those years that the country joined NATO and made base arrangements with this country.

The presumption is that anti-U.S. feeling gathered force during the seven years (1967 to 1974) when the colonels held sway. In that connection, it is notable that the European country that ranks next to Greece in anti-American feeling now is Spain. There, in the postwar period, the United States backed the right-wing dictatorship of Francisco Franco.

Usually, to be sure, American tolerance of human rights violations by authoritarian regimes does not jeopardize this country's security interests. But the Greek case shows there can be a connection. Egregious violations of human decency by regimes working with American support nurse hostile feelings toward this country. Many, many years later the antagonism comes back to haunt this country -- even to the point of damaging security interests.